Stock Market History

Validea's Guru Investor Blog

After the parabolic rise of the “Nifty Fifty” stocks in the 1960s and early 1970s, this group of 50 large-cap, blue chips equities “proceeded to dive and lose more than half their value in the ensuing bear markets of the mid-1970s.” This, according to a recent article in CNBC, should serve as a “historical warning to generations of investors of the heavy price to pay for unbridled, uncritical enthusiasm.” At their peak, the article says, the Nifty Fifty (which included names such as Coca-Cola, Xerox and General Electric) were trading at 42 times earnings. “Some of these stocks, “it says, […]

There’s a tendency among the masses to judge our presidents on the state of the economy during their terms. However, says a recent article by Morgan Housel of The Motley Fool, jumping to conclusions based on four or eight years of an administration (both of which, he argues, are “blips”) may not be well-founded. “No matter who lives in the White House,” Housel writes, “business cycles come and go, the Federal Reserve flexes with unmatched power, and the 78% of the global economy that is not the United States pushes and pulls everything around.” He offers historical data regarding economic […]